Gilgamesh: What Was the Main Character Looking For?

Gilgamesh was a hero, seeking the meaning of life. He was a classic hero, one that represented an ideal picture of his culture. In this novel, he tries to come to the terms of life and death, really trying to understand it. King of earth, god and man, Gilgamesh was still unable to find what he was looking for. He soon met Enkidu, a man but more animal. He was ignorant but had no fear or wisdom. These two soon became great friends, and went on the journey to the Cedar forest and had said that life really is too short. Death is an inevitable and inescapable fact of human life, which is a lesson Gilgamesh soon learned. He is bitter that only the gods can live forever and says as much when Enkidu warns him away from their fight with Humbaba. Mesopotamian’s dogma offers a vision of an afterlife, but believed that the dead spend their time being dead. If Gilgamesh’s quest to the Cedar Forest was in spite of death, his second quest, to Utnapishtim, is for a way to escape it. Gilgamesh and Enkidu learn all too well that the gods are dangerous for mortals.There are many obstacles that these men endure during their journey. One of the many differences between Gilgamesh and Enkidu would be When the temple prostitute seduces Enkidu, he loses his animal attributes but gains his self-consciousness and his humanity. The theirs Gilgamesh; who has no afterlife to look forward to and no moral ideal to aspire to. Although he may not know, really Gilgamesh’s many journeys mirror his internal journey to become a selfless and devoted king. Sadly along this journey Gilgamesh looses Enkidu andgrieves heavily over the loss, and made a decision to find the key to everlasting life. The loss of a great friend and the thought of mortality were to much for Gilgamesh to bear. He tried hard to understand why one would both to stay on earth to end up in a terrible afterlife. He soon tried to become immortal like the gods. His answers to the questions of life and death on his journey were soon...

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Gilgameshwas a very attractive masculine hero who was two thirds god and one third man. He was the powerful king of Uruk who went on a long, hard, and physical journey to achieve his number one goal, which was immortality. Through his journey Gilgamesh faced many obstacles and challenges that made it even more difficult in accomplishing his goal. There were many unimportant and important steps throughout his journey that showed the development of Gilgamesh’s true identity, and how he matured along the way.
In the beginning of the Gilgamesh epic, the first step is important because it shows how Gilgamesh’s personality and identity was when he was starting out his journey. Gilgameshwas the king of Uruk and he started out his quest being very selfish, cocky, and unfair to the people of his city. The goddess Aruru created Enkidu, a wild man who lived in the wilderness to compete with Gilgamesh. Enkidu and Gilgamesh fought each other and ended up being really good friends. They decided to start their quest by going to the cedar forest to kill the evil Humbaba. Enkidu was fearful of the monster and Gilgamesh said, “Take your ax in your hand and attack. He who leaves the fight unfinished is not at peace.” (Epic of Gilgamesh 17) This...

...Ashley Torres
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English 220
Gilgamesh and the 21 Century Hero
A hero is someone who tries the best to help everyone and will do everything in his or her power to help out another person. The term hero means different things to different people. Today many people believe that a hero is a person who can accomplish what others cannot or a person who puts themselves on the line for the other people. Men, women and children can all be heroes if they truly feel in their hearts the need to help others in even the smallest ways. In our modern world heroes are defined in so many ways. Anyone can be a hero, a best friend, a devoted mother/father, a teacher, etc. On the other hand, in the older days, before laws and technology, heroes were the men who fought against evil things, who rescue damsels in distress; they were the manly men, the king's knights, god like creatures, brave warriors. As criteria for any epic story a hero must be involved in the story. Furthermore, these heroes had to meet also specific criteria. The definition of an ancient time hero is very different than a hero today yet in the Epic of Gilgamesh, Gilgamesh meets many of the traits in today’s hero.
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...﻿GILGAMESH
By MET
The myth known today as The Epic of Gilgameshwas considered in ancient times to be one of the great masterpieces of cuneiform literature. Copies of parts of the story have been found in Israel, Syria, and Turkey and references to the hero are attested in Greek and Roman literature.
The tale revolves around a legendary hero named Gilgamesh (Bilgames in Sumerian), who was said to be the king of the Sumerian city of Uruk. His father is identified as Lugalbanda, king of Uruk, and his mother is the wise cow goddess Ninsun. No contemporary information is known about Gilgamesh, who, if he was in fact an historical person, would have lived around 2700 B.C. Nor is there any preserved early third-millennium version of the poem. During the twenty-first century B.C., Shulgi, ruler of the Sumerian city of Ur, was a patron of the literary arts. He sponsored a revival of older literature and established academies of scholars at his capital Ur and at the holy city of Nippur. Shulgi claimed Lugalbanda as his father and Gilgamesh as his brother.
Although little of the courtly literature of the Shulgi academies survives, and Sumerian ceased to be a spoken language soon after the end of his dynasty, Sumerian literature continued to be studied in the scribal schools of the following Old Babylonian period. Five Sumerian stories about...

...clearly expressed by the hero Gilgamesh include a mixed divine and human birth and the circumstance of the divine world interfering within the human world. Other characteristics are not blatantly expressed by Gilgamesh, those may include him being superhuman or super natural compared to the ordinary man. For my paper, I will investigate the characteristics an epic hero should obtain and whether or not I find Gilgamesh to be a true hero.
In this tale we have the maincharacter, Gilgamesh, who is obviously a longer than life male in history, which is obvious just from me having knowledge about this man who lived in 2700 B.C.E. Furthermore, it is said that he is 2/3 god and 1/3 human, was born from the goddess Ninsun. In the story, Gilgamesh and brother Enkidu receive a quest to liberate Cedar Forest from Humbaba, and when Gilgamesh defeats him the goddess Ishtar confronts Gilgamesh in hopes of becoming his wife. This is a perfect example of the divine world interfering with the human world. When she is rejected, she is angered and sends a bull after him, which is also killed by the brothers. At this time the gods decide that Enkidu must die, to avenge the deaths of the two kills. The divine world is very active in this story, in situations they should not be influencing, and that satisfies a big part of labeling this story as an epic....

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The Epic of Gilgamesh
The story is all about the friendship between Gilgamesh and Enkidu. Enkidu is a wild man created by the gods as Gilgamesh's equal to distract him from oppressing the people ofUruk. Together, they journey to the Cedar Mountain to defeat Humbaba, its monstrous guardian. Later they kill the Bull of Heaven, which the goddess Ishtar sends to punish Gilgamesh for spurning her advances. As a punishment for these actions, the gods sentence Enkidu to death. Gilgamesh also had an adventure just to gain immortality.
Love is a motivating force. Love motivates change in Gilgamesh. Enkidu changes from a wild man into a noble one because of Gilgamesh, and their friendship changes Gilgamesh from a bully and a tyrant into an exemplary king and hero. Because they are evenly matched, Enkidu puts a check on Gilgamesh’s restless, powerful energies, and Gilgamesh pulls Enkidu out of his self-centeredness. Gilgamesh’s connection to Enkidu makes it possible for Gilgamesh to identify with his people’s interests. The love the friends have for each other makes Gilgamesh a better man in the first half of the epic, and when Enkidu dies, Gilgamesh’s grief and terror impel him onto a futile quest for immortality.
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According to the Epic of Gilgamesh death, selfishness and power of gods determine why there is death and destruction in the world. Gilgamesh the novel shows that death is a way to show fear in some people that haven’t lived their life the way it should be. Gilgamesh is actually changing. For starters, he's shifting from lamenting his friend to lamenting for himself, because he will have to die too someday. “Deep sadness penetrates my cure, I fear death, and now roam the wilderness- I will set out to the region of Utanapishtim …”. Accepting death is the last thing on Gilgamesh's mind at this point. Instead, he is determined to do something about it: he will go see Utanapishtim, the one human being who received immortality.
The novel also shows selfishness gives the idea that everyone is meaningless. s"Who is the mortal who can live forever? The life of man is short. Only the gods can live forever. Therefore put on new clothes, a clean robe and a cloak tied with a sash, and wash the filth of the journey from your body. Eat and drink your fill of the food and drink, men eat and drink. Let there be pleasure and dancing." Siduri implores Gilgamesh to abandon his quest and partake in the joys of life instead, explaining that immortality was never designed for mortal men. She advises him to make the most of what he has, a life that is still in progress, and to...

...The epic of Gilgamesh is about the ruler of uruk Gilgamesh and his quest to receive everlasting life. Gilgamesh wanted to receive everlasting life because he saw his best friend enkidu die of a slow agonizing death witch lead Gilgamesh to put his own mortality to question.. Enkidu died this death as punishment for the thing he and Gilgamesh did like kill the bull of heaven and chop down all the trees in the cedar forest after killing the demon humbaba. So Gilgamesh goes to the end of the earth to find utnapishtims to grant him everlasting life. Utnapishtims tells him he can have everlasting life if he can stay awake for 7 days Gilgamesh fails immediately and ends up going back to uruk but before he goes back utnapishtims tells Gilgamesh about a flower that restores youth , so Gilgamesh gets the flower but it gets stolen so he leaves with nothing but knowledge witch he shares with his people.
The maincharacter is Gilgamesh he is a hero, fiercest of warriors he is two thirds god one third human and has super natural abilities..after seeing his friend enkidu die he goes off on a quest to get him out of the house of dust and gain everlasting life. Gilgamesh had to prove himself many times in the story by defeating challenges that faced him , killing the bull of heaven, when utnapishtim...

...companionship between Adam and Eve; one soul needing another soul. It is in the partnerships created by the God’s that fulfill purpose on earth. Enkidu and Giglamesh felt their purpose was to spread their might and power, and gain fame.
While trying to show their strength and power by defeating Humbaba, Giglamesh and Enkidu looked to their God’s for direction and protection just like the Christian society today looks to their God in hard times. On their way to defeat Humbaba the guys are looking for direction from Shamesh the god of the sun who gives wisdom.
“O glorious Shamash, I have followed the road you commanded but now if you send no succor, how shall I escape?’ Glorius Shamash heard his prayer and he summoned the great wind” (Bedford Anthology 59).
Not only does Shamesh hear the prayer, and the request for assistance, but Shamesh also takes the steps to fulfill the wish. People who worship the Christian God also ask for assistance through prayer and guidance in moments of fear. Whenever wishes and prayers get taken care of, they can call this a blessing. It is very similar how the people of Uruk worship their Gods in comparison to the way our society worships the Christian God. Gilgamesh also prays to the moon god, Sin, to grant him a vision.
“In these mountain passes long ago I saw lions, I was afraid and I lifted my eyes to the moon; I prayed and my prayers went up to the gods, so now, O moon god Sin,...